A Pink and Yellow Day
by Jujubee1981
Summary: The Doctor and Rose take a holiday. Bittersweet.
1. Chapter 1

**This is my first ever Doctor Who fic. Love Eleven but still IN love with Ten. If you like it or have advice, let me know! I'm working on additional DW fic and could use the feedback since I'm new to writing DW! :)**

* * *

><p>Rose shifted in her sleep, letting out a little sigh and relaxing again into kittenlike slumber on the seat in the control room. The Doctor watched her from under his dark lashes. Perhaps he ought to pick her up and put her in her own bed, he thought. He'd done it before without waking her. When he was the man with blue eyes, he'd felt sort of...brotherly about it at first. At first.<p>

Yes, he would definitely have to move her, he decided finally, still watching her silently. She had been asleep in the chair for three quarters of an hour and he wasn't sure that he could find her a chiropractor qualified to work on a human spine in this part of the universe. He started toward her quietly when she suddenly pursed her full lips and her eyelids twitched open. The Doctor quickly busied himself turning knobs and pulling levers, pretending that he hadn't been staring.

"Doctor?" Rose said, her voice husky with sleep.

"Ahem. Yes?" The Doctor said brightly. Too brightly, maybe? Bordering on squeaky? He didn't know. "Awake? Then you'd better take a look at this!" He swiveled the TARDIS monitor toward her.

"Hmm?" Rose stretched, blinked, and pulled herself onto her feet to look at the screen. "There's nothing there." She said.

"What?" The Doctor crowded behind her. "Of all the..." he muttered. He pushed a green button, pushed it again, waited a few seconds, then pushed it again. Shooting an embarrassed glance at Rose, who was now giggling, he gave the TARDIS console a discreet kick, then pushed the button again. The screen flickered to life. "Ah!" He said in satisfaction, grinning hugely. "So? What do you think?" He asked eagerly.

"It's very..." Rose looked quizzical and smiled tentatively at him. "pink?" She finished.

"You don't like it." The Doctor said, his large brown eyes showing disappointment.

"No, I like it!" Rose protested immediately. His face brightened again and she smiled up at him. "But what is it?"

The Doctor's grin spread and his eyes shown. "Our holiday!" He said. "Kratos Four. Lovely pink beaches, clear water, best food and music in the galaxy."

"A holiday?" Rose said, her own grin matching his now. "Sunglasses, fruity drinks, and dancing?"

"I said to myself, well, Rose would like a few days on the beach and the whole planet is golden sunshine and pink sand. Reminded me of you."

Rose blinked. The Doctor coughed, flustered at what he had just said, and turned away to fuss with some controls as he continued. "Well, I mean, why not anyway? They make the best banana daiquiris in the whole of space and time! Little parasols in 'em too."

Rose's lips twitched in a smile. "Well, if there are parasols, then obviously we've got to go."

The Doctor grinned down at her and raised his eyebrows in glee as he threw a lever and the TARDIS jerked into the time vortex with its customary whooping of gears, tossing both the Doctor and Rose to the floor, laughing.

The TARDIS landed with a heavy metallic thud and the Doctor bounced to his feet, reaching to scoop Rose off of the floor with both hands. She was still laughing as he pulled her to her feet and she skipped after him grinning as he immediately scampered for the door.

"Kratos Four!" The Doctor announced, gesturing to the door exuberantly. Rose flung the door wide open with a grin and then turned to the Doctor with an arrested expression. He was frowning.

"Doctor?" She said.

"One civil war." The Doctor muttered darkly to himself. "One civil war in all of Kratosian history and it's happening now. Of all times."

An explosion rocked the TARDIS and the Doctor quickly slammed the door shut, pressing his back against it. He met Rose's eyes. "Whoops." He said sheepishly. Rose grinned at him dotingly.

"Thick as a brick." She said, teasing him gently.

"Thass me. Thick-thick-thicky." The Doctor said agreeably. His eyes smiled down into hers. "Shall we try two hundred years in either direction?"

Another explosion sounded outside the blue box. Rose nodded, her eyes bright with excitement.

"Right! Good!" The Doctor bounded for the console again, wildly pushing, pulling, and turning anything within reach. "Charming, sunny holiday, here we come!"


	2. Chapter 2

The TARDIS's gears whooped as it landed and the Doctor zipped to the door to peep out. "Same bat channel." He announced. "No missiles this time." He turned a pleased expression toward Rose, who had followed behind him, and waited to be admired. She obliged.

"Lovely, beachy holiday!" She chirruped with shining eyes and a fast squeeze 'round his middle. "Shall I find my bathing suit?"

The Doctor's eyebrows drew together and he examined her jeans and sweatshirt. Clearly he hadn't considered beach attire. "Probably need something to protect you from the suns too." He said thoughtfully.

"_Suns_?" Rose parroted happily. It wasn't really a question. She was already off down a corridor to hunt for beachwear and sunblock.

The Doctor was left standing at the slightly-ajar door of the TARDIS, casting a deliberating eye over his own buttoned-down brown suit and greatcoat and wondering for the first time whether this body had the legs for shorts. He shut the TARDIS door and strode off down another corridor to his wardrobe.

Because Rose needed a few more moments after the Doctor had changed his clothes, he piled bread, jam, a different kind of jam, and a bottle of grape-flavored fizzy drink into a basket before considering Rose's health and adding three bananas. He had chosen to wear brown swimming trunks and a blue Guayabara shirt. One definite pro of being reborn handsome was that dressing himself had become a snap. Oh, perhaps he was a little vain, he supposed, but he recognized the advantages that youthful looks and a great head of hair afforded him. Mostly he got away with a lot more, which he liked. And Rose, well...Rose thought he was foxy now, which he really liked. He gave himself a brisk mental shake and applied himself to finding out where she had hidden her stash of jelly beans from him.

"Ready!" Rose announced, coming into the galley in a sort-of floaty yellow beach thingy with the pink straps of a bathing suit peeping out around her neck. She wore a floppy woven hat, flippy sandals, and a big white blob of zinc on the tip of her pert nose. The Doctor wheezed with laughter at her. She pulled a face at him, swept her gaze over his holiday clothes with a blush and a grin, and said, "Jelly beans are in the Weetabix box." Before turning and breezing out the door toward the console room.

She was already out of the TARDIS, kicking happily around in the pink sand, when the Doctor emerged with the basket and a green, dusty sun parasol over his shoulder. Rose trotted over, took one end of the basket handle and they swung it between them as they strolled over the sparkling sand toward the glittering sea. She held her hat atop her head with her other hand and sighed with pleasure into the sea breeze. "This is lovely, Doctor, thank you." She said. He smiled down into her face, Rose's dark eyes shone up at him and she looked like an extension of the beautiful world around them. The living embodiment of the Doctor's ideal, restful, happy place. He looked quickly down at his bare feet in the sand. These thoughts were coming with alarming frequency since his regeneration.

They had never spoken of that kiss in the hospital, though the Doctor was sure Rose remembered it as surely as he couldn't forget it, and he never told her about that last kiss before his regeneration on Satellite 5. Truth be told, he wasn't sure why he had done it at the time. There were certainly other ways he could've absorbed the energy of the time vortex. But she had been willing to die for him that day and, somehow, when he instead died to save her, it seemed right that he should kiss away the energy that was consuming her. And she had been so _achingly_ lovely standing there bathed in the glorious light of the time vortex. Pink and gold. Weeping because her head ached, weeping because she didn't want to lose him.

He had loved her for it. All of it. And when he died from the energy he took from her lips, he was reborn loving Rose.

He sighed, his hearts feeling both very full and very heavy. Of all the loves in all his lives, Rose worried him the most. It was all, all..._worryingly_ _different_.

"Doctor?" Rose broke into his moody contemplations. He grinned down at her immediately, his burden lightening.

"Fancy a grape pop?" He asked.

"I fancy a spash in the ocean." Rose replied brightly. They had arrived at a large dune at the very edge of the sea. Rose let go of the basket handle and kicked off her sandals, digging her pink toes into the pink sand. "Oooh!" She exclaimed. "It's soft!"

"It's talc!" The Doctor said importantly. He put the basket down and, with a swift downward stroke, jammed the parasol upright in the sand. He opened it up and caught Rose raising an eyebrow at the "Starbucks" emblazoned across one side. "I borrowed it." He said defensively.

Rose laughed. She dropped her hat on top of the basket and peeled the yellow floaty thing over her head, revealing a sporty pink bikini. Without a pause, she dashed down the sand dune and into the sea, shrieking at the cool water.

Dear Lord. A pink bikini. The Doctor briefly regretted the beach holiday. Maybe skiing next time.


	3. Chapter 3

The Doctor sighed, grinned, and made up his mind.

Not bothering to remove his shirt, he abandoned their belongings in the sand and raced after her with a whoop, jumping far out into the clear water with a splash before suddenly remembering that he wasn't sure if he knew how to swim.

They had a good romp in the ocean, but the unrepentant sun chased them back to their parasol before many hours passed. The pink talc sand didn't stick, for some unknown and wonderful reason, and they dried in the golden light of the binary suns exchanging laughter and nonsense. Rose popped her yellow thing back on over her head, to the Doctor's great personal relief, and they devoured bread and jam under the parasol, having both become a little ruddy from the sunshine and exercise.

"So where are the people and the music and the fruity drinks?" Rose asked curiously.

"Erm. Yeeees." The Doctor said guiltily around a bite of banana. "This might be a bit earlier, history-wise, than we'd planned on. Strictly speaking."

"Strictly speaking?" Rose repeated.

"Wellll, strictly speaking, they _are_ here." The Doctor said, finishing his banana. "Well, not _here _here, but they will be. In a few...million...ish...years."

Rose started to laugh.

"They're, _strictly _speaking, in the ocean. Protozoa. Fish-people. Whatnot." The Doctor said crankily as Rose continued to laugh merrily at him. He rummaged another banana out of the basket and lobbed it at her. "Have a banana. Potassium, you know."

It bounced off her foot and onto the sand. Rose picked it up and started to peel it. After eating it all, she flopped backward onto the sand with a pleased sigh. "What a lovely time." She murmured, closing her eyes as a smile spread across her lips. A tiny smudge of white on the side of her nose was all that remained of her sunblock.

"Oh, yes." The Doctor agreed.

"I'm glad we're a few million-ish years too early for the people and the fruity drinks. It's better with just us." Rose said, her eyes still closed.

"Really?" The Doctor asked quietly, watching her face. It grew a shade pinker.

She opened her eyes to look up at him and hesitated before answering with a soft. "Yeah." Her face flushed completely and the Doctor couldn't control himself as reached out with one long, clever finger and gently touched the little smear of zinc with his fingertip, swiping it up. Then, mesmerized by what he was doing, he rested his four fingertips against her silky cheek.


	4. Chapter 4

The Doctor had never touched Rose this way before and he felt the miniscule changes in her body as he did so. Her skin heated .62 degrees, her heartbeat sped up by 10.3 beats per minute. He could feel her warm human skin and smell that she was utterly female. He could measure the widening of her irises, the increase in her respiration. He knew that she couldn't sense or know the same of him.

Stupid ape.

Beautiful woman.

"Doctor?" She whispered. Her voice was husky. She turned her face toward his hand, dragging his fingertips across her face to rest at the corner of her full, petal-soft lips.

He could feel the moistness of her breath against his hand and smell the banana she just ate. His mouth watered for her. He pulled his hand away. "You had a smudge. We need to move to a higher point if we want to see the suns set." He said briskly, congratulating himself on his normal tone of voice. Rose's face fell slightly in disappointment but she bucked up quickly. She always did, his Rose. He felt a mixture of pride and frustration about that, in this instance. Maybe if she'd just make an overture, he could pretend to forget his scruples and touch her. Coward.

The Doctor hauled Rose to her feet and busied himself taking down his ill-gotten Starbucks umbrella. Rose tidied up the basket. They didn't carry it between them as they headed up the dunes, away from the sea, toward the pale-yellow brushland up the slope.

"The smaller of the suns is Lesath. It'll set first, followed by Ras in just twenty Kratosian minutes. About...er...thirty-one Earth minutes." The Doctor said. "The twin suns of Lesath and Ras have burned for forty-three million years and will burn for twenty-seven million more." He said dreamily as they settled side-by-side onto the top of the slope on the springy lemon-colored grass.

"And then?" Rose asked.

The Doctor eyes shut briefly. "Time War." He said into the brilliant, dying light of Lesath.

"Oh." Rose breathed softly. She touched him then, leaning against his side and holding his left hand. She dropped her blonde head against his shoulder. "I'm sorry."

"Me too." He said briefly. For a moment he bent and touched his cheek lightly to the top of her head. Human hair was so baby fine, he thought, or maybe it was just Rose. He hadn't had many occasions to touch human hair. "You smell like bananas." He said, sitting up again, but keeping her against his side.

"So do you." Rose grinned. "And you've got a sunburn."

"Have I?" The Doctor felt his face with his free hand. "So I have! Oh, look!" He exclaimed, suddenly pointing out to sea. "Proto-Kratosians!"

"Proto-Kratosians?" Rose repeated.

"Proto-Kratosians, Proto-Kratosians!" The Doctor said gleefully, enjoying the cadence of the words greatly. "They descended from dolphin-like mammals. Look at them dance in the sea."

Rose laughed in delight as she spied the sleek peachy creatures playfully jumping into the air below them and splashing back into the sea. The first of the suns had nearly set and the light grew brilliantly orange as the giant Ras dipped into the horizon, setting the clouds and sky ablaze with gold. "Oh!" Rose laughed breathlessly. "Oh, it's so beautiful!"

The Doctor released her hand and wrapped his arm around her, as if trying to bundle her joy up in his arms to hold. She fit herself against his side and tilted her head back against his shoulder, still gazing into the burning sky.

"Binary suns rarely set anywhere near the same time." The Doctor said. "On Gallifrey..." He stopped himself, cleared his throat, and continued in a slightly rough voice, "on Gallifrey...the twin suns set simultaneously in the south and the north and the sky...at night...looks almost, _almost _like this." He finished at a whisper. Rose quietly settled more fully against him, her warm human body heating his left side, her soft female form fitting itself against his body.

"It must have been lovely." She murmured gently to him, as they both fixed their eyes on the horizon.

He was silent for a long moment. "It was glorious." He said.

The air grew cool as Ras fell from the sky and an etherial, ancient sound rose on the wind and filled the air.

"What..?" Rose said.

"Listen!" The Doctor insisted. "They're singing."

The creatures in the ocean leapt toward the sky. Exquisite individual peals of sound blended into a deep chorus of harmony as the great star Ras sank below the line of the distant sea. Rose sighed into the golden gloaming light as the Kratosians fell silent one by one and returned to the depths of the sea until there was no sound but the gentle swell of the ocean, the whip of the wind, and the breaths of the two huddled travelers on the hill.

For a long, long while they sat silently, the Doctor still holding Rose against his side, until the sky darkened and the wind grew cold. "Come on." The Doctor said, his voice a little rusty from disuse. He helped her up and let out a little puff of breath when she came to her feet and went straight into his arms. He wrapped her tight against him and heard her muffled voice against his chest.

"Thank you." She said, holding him fast. "It was the most beautiful afternoon I've ever had."

He dropped his cheek down to rest on the top of her head and, heedless of the turmoil in his mind, allowed one hand to stroke her back lightly in a small circle. She lifted her face up and stood on tiptoe to press a warm, soft kiss to his cheek. He swallowed hard and his eyes closed tight, memorizing the moment so that he could remember it when this fragile human girl he loved was gone. Hoping that the day was far off yet.

The embrace ended softly. They gathered the basket and the parasol and walked to the TARDIS. The door closed behind them with a sound of finality.

"Tomorrow I'm going to take you to the bazaar on Alrai Six." The Doctor said, hearing distantly how cheerful his voice sounded in his ears. He grinned lopsidedly at her. "It's horrible. Your mum would love it."

Rose chuckled, her eyes sparkling. "I'll buy her a present." She hesitated. "Good night, Doctor."

"Goodnight." He replied with a smile. She smiled in return and walked down the hallway toward her bedroom. "My Rose." He murmured to himself, and, with a sigh of joy and sadness, stepped onto the TARDIS platform to tinker another lonely night away as she slept.


End file.
